The Advertiser staffs’ teenage children react to world-first social media ban

Within hours of taking effect, Australian children had already found loopholes in the world-first social media ban, despite hopes it would curb online distractions. WATCH HERE.

They’ve never known a world without likes, filters and endless scrolling – but now, Australian kids are navigating life amid a groundbreaking social media ban.

The world-first legislation, designed to curb online harm, cyber-bullying and addictive screen habits by prohibiting under-16s from using major online platforms, has on Wednesday, come into full force.

Being children of three Advertiser staff, and with journalism running through their veins, Drew Jung, 13, Edie Starick, 17, and Josiah Grace, 17, joined the office as The Advertiser’s newly-appointed co-editors for the day.

Kara Jung and her son Drew 13yo, Paul Starick and his daughter Edie 17yo, Lynton Grace and his son Josiah 17yo discuss the social media ban. Picture: Brenton Edwards

The teenagers told the office of how the sweeping changes had already reshaped their outlook on social media as a whole.

Drew remarked how easy it had previously been to “procrastinate” with so many different apps available to use – but said he hoped the ban would bring him and his friends closer together; welcoming the change as a “positive” step.

“Hopefully it will get more people socialising face-to-face, instead of just socialising online,” Drew said.

“People will be looking at getting into sports teams so they have more face-to-face friends and more stuff to do, since it (social media) won’t be a distraction anymore.

“I’m pretty excited that there will be less online distractions, and my friends will obviously be more available.”

As optimistic as he was about the changes, Drew acknowledged there was still a long way to go before Australians were able to witness the positive impact at its fullest extent.

Children his age, Drew said, had been able to “get around” the ban by lying about their age.

“I think so far it’s been a bit ineffective,” he said. “I’ve seen many friends get around actually being banned from their accounts.

Kara Jung and her son Drew, 13, Paul Starick and his daughter Edie, 17, and Lynton Grace and his son Josiah, 17, discuss the social media ban. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“With some apps, like Snapchat, they use facial recognition to try and determine your age and some people look older than they actually are. There’s quite a few ways to get around it.

“I would rather it be effective and actually work, so you can see how positively the social media ban is affecting the younger generation.”

Hundreds of thousands of adolescents are expected to be impacted by the ban, with Instagram alone reporting about 350,000 Australian users aged 13 to 15.

Some popular apps and websites such as Roblox, Discord, Pinterest and WhatsApp are exempt – but the list remains under review.

Josiah Grace, 17, said he felt as though every app should be at least “somewhat regulated” to comply with age restrictions.

Discord, Josiah claimed, remains a “genuine danger” for the younger generation.

“I think Discord really should have been included in the ban, and it wasn’t,” he said. “That is a genuine danger to some young kids.

“I’ve never really used it, but I know some people use Roblox to talk to kids and get them off platform and on to Discord to talk to them more on there.

“That’s something that has to stop, and needs to be regulated.”

Child predators, The Advertiser revealed in July, were preying on unsuspecting kids using popular apps such as Roblox as Snapchat – which would allow offenders to pinpoint the exact location of their would-be victims.

More often than ever before, law enforcement groups are “regularly seeing cases” involving children being targeted through online games, social networking, video-sharing apps and instant messaging software.

Victims advocate Andrew Carpenter said, when it comes to online abuse, it’s “mainly through children’s games”.

Video games, Mr Carpenter claimed, that “don’t have censored chats”.

An example of the sexual behaviour commonly seen on Roblox. Picture: File

“With Roblox, there’s a lot of child sex offenders that actually use that, because the chats can actually have uncensored material,” he said.

“Snapchat is particularly dangerous because an offender can find where a child is on the map function within half a metre of where they’re currently sitting. So they’ll be friends with children on online games, ask for their Snapchat, and then be able to locate them that way.”

Mr Carpenter said adults who played games designed for children – like Roblox – was “always something that should raise particular concerns”.

Tech giant Meta said it was committed to complying with the Australian law, but it called for app stores to be held accountable for checking ages instead.

YouTube also attacked the social media ban – claiming the new law would make kids “less safe” because they would still be able visit the website without an account, but would lose website’s safety filters.

Social media sites have put in place age verification processes to comply with the ban but, as Drew pointed out, children are already finding ways to cheat the system.

Last week, Adelaide schoolboy Alastair Wurst passed Snapchat’s age-verification process – involving a full-face scan from several angles – and was accepted as an adult born in 2000.

It meant that 2011-born, 14-year-old Alastair’s app wasn’t switched off on Wednesday when the ban came into effect.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the onus was “on the platforms, not parents or children, to meet these laws”.

“If a child has a social media account on December 10 then that platform is breaking the law,” Ms Wells said.

Originally published as The Advertiser staffs’ teenage children react to world-first social media ban